Painting the Dream, the Shamanic Life and Art of David Chethlahe Paladin, by David Paladin Bear & Company 1992, 8.5 x 11”, 120 pages, 34 color plates
Writing in his foreword to this book, Matthew Fox, the Creation Spirituality theologian, examines Paladin’s work in light of the four paths of Creation Spirituality suggesting that the art "will also take us more deeply into understanding our own spiritual journey. . . . For Paladin is nothing if not a light-bearer and a truth-bringer, an original thinker and a spiritual warrior who ushers in new light that allows all of us to see our world with new eyes."
Painting the Dream invites us into the remarkable life of visionary artist David Chethlahe Paladin (1926-1984). Paladin’s art was his life; through it, he fulfilled his desire to serve, to heal, to live compassionately, and to walk the Navajo way of beauty.
A shaman as well as an artist, Paladin was one of the first Native American artists to move beyond traditional themes and styles of painting. Over the years his associations with indigenous people from around the world and the rich belief systems they shared with him provided another basis for his visual tapestries of wonder and celebration. Alive with Navajo, Pueblo, Huichol, and Egyptian deities; Aboriginal Dreamtime images, and mythological beings born of the imagination and lore of many ages and lands, Paladin’s art has been praised for its exuberance, eclecticism, spirituality, and original use of symbols.